Oh the Glory of Podcasting Once Again

Well now I have the ability to place audio in Odeo once again, I can only do a few at a time until my connection gets severed, so here are a few for now. It feels nice to be able to do this once again. These are all guitar tracks, from jam tracks, metal, and twangy. All recorded with Acid Pro, a Behringer Eurorack, a Schecter Exotic, a Line 6 Flextone series amp, and MXL Microphones.

Modern Major General

I don't know why I always like hearing this song, they did a little add on at the end

My Top Five Masters of the Shred

Not in any order
Randy Rhoads, influential, outstanding, and groundbreaking abilities
Darrell Abbott, kept metal alive and helped a new era of music evolve
Joe Satriani, unique style that always brings a smile to my face
Mike Einziger, unique style, always changing his sound
Will Adler, catchy complicated riffs, one of the best metal players around

Close on the list is Kyle Gass, just because he is bald, wears tube socks and rocks the hell out of the acoustic!

Unfortunate Podcasting Delays

I have had a few drawbacks to my podcasting capabilities. I used to have a direct connection to the net, but now that my household has switched over to a very poor wireless signal, it makes it almost impossible for me to post anything. I have yet to get out to the store and purchase some cd-r's so that I can just burn them and bring them somewhere else for the posting process. I have lots of guitar licks done, so get ready.

Moving on in the Top Five

Well we did the Vocals last time, next in line, is the masters of the guitar. Give me at least five guitarists who you think have the right to be known as the best of all time. Are they going to be metal shredders, classical masters, tapping extremes, effects wizards, ridiculously good songwriters, simple strummers, or some combination of the above? Blues, rock, funk, metal, folk, jazz, punk....etc. There are so many guitarists out there, and they are yours to pick through your personal opinion. Try to give some explanation to why they are your top picks. I want to see what we have coming so I will post my picks later, hah!

Dimebag guitar solo age 18

Check out Dimebag when he was a youngin, absolutely amazing. It makes a guitarist want to either play until their hand falls off, or just quit.

Oh, what a world!

Ok ok, I decided to take an early Thanksgiving vacation, thinking I would be able to relax at my folk’s house, and get some quality posting in. Little did I know, their internet connection was recently disconnected, and I was stuck in smallville Minnesota without a way to update my blog. So I figured the best thing I could do would be to sit down with a notebook and write out my soon to be blog entries, along with writing and remembering guitar licks so that I could put a few more Rockin Recordings and Podcasts up. So they have all built up over the week, and now that I am back to technology I can transfer them from my notebook to here, sorry if it is a few too many posts at once, but there is no other way man!

Drop the pin, throw the Light Grenades!

Incubus, one of my favorite bands, has a new cd that is being released today. It is titled Light Grenades and the first single released is called Anna Molly. By the sound of the first single, they are picking up right where they left off from there previous album, but knowing them they have found a way to reinvent their sound again, exploring a whole new world in music. That is what I appreciate most about them, they keep changing their styles. They started out as sort of a thrash jazz band, and then moved their way closer to a funk heavy metal group, then on to lighter soulful rock, continuing to a soothing yet screeching alternative, then on to an experimental lash out jamband, which brings them to where they are now. I am not sure what they have in store for listeners now, but I am anxious to find out. Their guitarist Michael Einziger is what I believe is one of the most underrated guitarists out there. His licks are catchy but skillful, and his solo’s draw you deep within the sound. To me his works sound like a mix between a new age Jimmy Page and Tom Morello, but his are unique nonetheless. He has the crafted songwriting talents of Page, with the experimental groove like Morello. If you want a good example, find a way to listen to their last album, A Crow Left of the Murder, and listen to track 6 titled Sick Sad Little World, and track 9 titled Priceless. If you haven’t been a fan, these tracks might at least build some respect and show that they are not the screaming girl fan based band that you might believe. Or you could always go to their Official Site, enjoyincubus.com to get a better scope into their group. They have everything from photos to tour dates, and a link to (sigh) their Myspace page.

Top Five, let's hear it

Who’s your favorite and why? I am talking about musicians. I am asking who you believe is your top five vocalists amongst the music world. I will have more postings down the road for top five guitarists, drummer, bassists, etc… But this one is all vocals baby. I want some feedback on this as well. Your picks can be for whatever reason you hold, whether it is something like raw vocal talent, or songwriting capabilities. My top five will not be in any order, so here we go. First off, Freddie Mercury, amazing tenor and an uncanny ability to produce harmonies. It is hard to find any harmonizing vocal sounds like that on any Queen album. Brandon Boyd of course, if you knew me, you knew this was coming. Incredible range, amazing songwriter, ability to reinvent sound, and near perfect live performances make this man land in my top five. Moving on to a very well known amazing vocal artist, Robert Plant. Screaming highs and songwriting skills that helped mold Led Zeppelin into the legend that they are today, and will continue to be tomorrow. Bob Dylan is quite possibly one of the best songwriters ever, his vocal talents though were not anything special, but it shows that you don’t have to hit ridiculous notes to be considered a great vocalist. Tool’s front man, and A Perfect Circle’s, James Maynard Keenan wraps up my five. Incredible lyrics and a voice that holds some of the most dedicated fans in the world, believe me you do not want to insult Tool in front of any fan. The thing about these artists is that one knows after hearing one or two words who the vocalist is. They are very unique and distinct, and have earned their way to be known as great vocalists. I bet you thought I would start off with top five guitarists, hah!

Wanna be a Guitar Hero?

Many of you may be familiar with a video game known as Guitar Hero, well they have just come out with a second one titled Guitar Hero 2, clever I know. Anywho I have the luxury of being good friends with my neighbors, and they have the luxury of being able to afford both of these games. So once in a while I step over next door, and if they aren’t playing it at the time, which they usually are, it doesn’t take a whole lot to get them to fire it up. The game controller has five “fret” buttons, a strum bar, and a whammy bar. It is basically a guitarist’s version of Dance Dance Revolution. The fret buttons are different colors, and during songs you have to hold down the corresponding button, or buttons, and strum the bar. You get more points for chords, flawless streaks, and using the whammy bar. The concept that I want to throw out there is that this is actually a decently effective training tool towards picking up a real guitar. It teaches you note related hand eye coordination, and what I think helps best is the rhythm. Your strumming has to be right on, and rhythm is a vital part of guitar playing. Another thing I would recommend doing is learning a song on the game that sounds like it should be learnable on real guitar. Learn it note for note, chord for chord until you have mastered it on the expert level. Then pick up your real guitar and sit down and try to study tablature or notation to that song. You will find that the song comes along much faster, because you already know the rhythm and how many notes go where, it is just about translating it onto your real fretboard. I am not saying to do nothing but play the game by all means, but I am saying that it can most definitely be more that just a video game. Just click this for Guitar Hero's official site.